He had better press coverage!
None of us who knew her
would doubt that she was amazing
I chose the classic passage from John

God so loved the world, that he gave his only son
Because it totally characterises Grace's faith.
God is not out to get us.,
God seeks to bring us together.

In the last few weeks we have talked about a number of difficult issues
Issues where human relationships have torn us apart.
Always we have spoken
of God's desire that people should be
brought together

We don't always get this
One day as I left (as I usually do )
with what ever little prayer I could offer
I prayed for 'reconciliation within the family'
at funeral times this is often to the fore.

I was moved that Grace
in some weakness and physical discomfort
was able to to say something like
"yes Lord"
It was her way
and her desire

Yes Lord
we believe
that you are the Christ
and can and will bring us together

I thank God
that I have known a faithful woman
who was Amazing
so trusting
and who, along with God's Holy Spirit
invites us to trust
in the amazing grace
reconciliation, love and forgiveness

Thursday, August 27, 2015

It has now been well over a year since I stopped
being the Parish Priest of Coromandel Valley.
I found my time (18 years+++) as the PP
quite satisfying
I enjoyed it;
though you don't spend nearly two decades anywhere and find that it is all smooth sailing.

Indeed during that time my wife and I separated (twice) and then divorced. The parish was kind.
I do give thanks for the kind support of Pam, and Elaine, of Robyn and Gary. Elizabeth and Cath & Mike. But it was hard.
Really appreciated the common sense of Karen, and of my close friends Cath and Mike. there are more I could mention...
Many were so kind, and I loved the care of Jenni and Corowood Choir. Dear Mary was so strange ( a pun) but always so positive. I enjoyed robust conversation with Grace and Ray. Joan and Cathy, Wendy and Pat...And dear Margaret was always so loving....and brought eggs! (miss those eggs!)

And many, many others
This will be my last post on coromandelpreachings.

Saturday, May 09, 2015

The bishop belongs to all.Let no one be scandalized if I frequentTh ose who are considered unworthyOr sinful. Who is not a sinner?Let no one be alarmed if I am seenWith compromised and dangerous people,On the left or the right.Let no one bind me to a group.My door, my heart, must be openTo everyone, absolutely everyone.

Friday, August 08, 2014

I have not deserted you!
But as I have now moved from Coromandel Valley I am now blogging from "A little bit Moore" the address being http://marymagadelaide.blogspot.com.au/
Am enjoying the beginning of this engaging ministry at St Mary Magdalene's, Adelaide...why not come and visit us on Sunday at 9 a.m....contemporary Anglo Catholic or 10.30....Traditional yet modern bells and smells!
I also still maintain my personal blog stephenclarks.blogspot.com.au.... but have not been too regular of late. Will try to do better
New parish is good, worship is good.
And I get tired!

Monday, June 30, 2014

there was a certain irony that my last service at Coromandel Valley was evensong
but, whilst admitting that the third part of the story was that I was going to have to trust God...and I was a bit frightened about the challenges ahead...
I preached about two songs Lord your love our life is forming....( by a significant SA song writer viz. me!!!) and TheSummons. in particular ...the line that I have been finding increasingly significant of late
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me?
it is a mystery I hope I am growing into. discovering more and more how God is forming me through love, and prayer...both small and big is being answered.
I will post the full text tomorrow

The epistle to the Romans is a cracker!It is worth sitting down and reading it all in one sittingI did this once and suddenly I got it!God is not out to get us!God actually wants the best for us!This gives you a better sense of the masterly nature of Paul's discussion.One of the curious literary devices we come across is his use of "By no means!"I always chuckle at thisbecause it seems he lets us see his inner struggle some what.When he has argued himself into a corner,and we might be compelled to get the wrong ideahe has to turn us round and steer us back in the right direction.So then...he says am I saying that everything is so hopeless that there is no point in even trying...this is exactly what he has arguedAnd he asserts BY NO MEANS!

So we read today:

6:1b Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?6:2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?

Paul has been arguing that one of the greatnesses of God's love to usis that we are not left to cope with sin by ourselves

In fact he says it is when things are really tough that God really cuts inin fact :

where sin increases, grace abounds all the more,

God's response to us is not to reject us when we sinbut to equip us all the more.So that we can fight back.Paul, is no doubt relying on his own experience,he understands that when he is weakest,when failure is all too evidentthen, he finds that, the grace of God is even stronger.

This is a key insight.Not that God is trying to catch us out.But that God is trying to encourage us..

When we allow ourselves to embrace this spiritthen that is our experience too.You see, God is not trying to beat us over the head with a stick,we are not being smacked because we are naughty.

We begin from the starting point that God loves usand wants the best for us.The love of God understandsthat sin diminishes usit actually makes our life worse.And so, Paul is telling us:God pours all the resources he caninto enabling us to struggle with this sin.He has given us the life of his Sonand we are talking here about the constant giving of the Holy Spiritto enable us to progress in the war with sin.

So we might joke (as Paul does)this fantastic inpouring of the Holy Spiritis so good for usthat maybe we should sin all the more!so that God might give us this Spirit.

But to view it like that is a joke.The serious point isthat God wants to deal with sinfor our goodbecause God loves us

Dealing with sinSo might we get the pointthat if God takes our sin seriouslythen so should we.We often deal with sinby ignoring itand yet Paul is telling us herethat it is so importantthat God throws everything He has got at it.We need to see that there is a serious invitation hereif God thinks sin is worth this effortthen perhaps we need to see that too.It is where we sin, that the potential for God's grace abounds!Where I lie, where I hurt others, where I betray, where I steal....it is exactly at this bad pointsthat God abounds!

This seems a contradiction to us,but it is going to be at the pointswhere we lie, cheat, steal and do not love.That we encounter God.Should we then lie more, hate even harder.

By no means!God is active.At His most active.Can we cooperate with this Spirit?And throw our energies into it?

This week:Where is God inviting you to act decisively with sin in your life?Pick one thing where you are going to cooperate with God and seek to let God deal with it.This will not be easy,but God will equip you all the more.Pray for that equipping

Are we serious about our discipleship? Then let us be serious where God is most active.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

I guess most readers will know that I am about to move but I will continue to use my personal blog (stephenclarks.blogspot.com) even though I have been a bit remiss of late.
It is however my intention to blog there in the last couple of weeks about two things:

The glory of moving !

The 18 years I have spent in this parish

THIS BLOG
has been amore systematic blog on which I put my weekly musings in homiletic form
This is called Coromandel Preachings...(here http://coromandelpreachings.blogspot.com.au/ ) obviously this isn't going to be an appropriate title when I leave this parish.
And there are only three Sunday morning sermons left to go, and one Evensong .
I am calling these the three last things...plus one!
Anyway I am looking for suggestions for a new title as I move to St Mary Magdalenes.
I will migrate the content to a new blog. A new priest might like to take over coromandel preachings...or not. Either is fine

BYE the BYE
This latter blog has been available from time to time in hard copy.
In a moment of naughtiness this hard copy was titled tongue in cheek The Strumpet....I did this mainly to see if anyone even read it and would comment.
It took 6 weeks before someone asked me if I knew what "strumpet" meant!
One of my churchwardens jumped to my defence and said she thought it was short for Stephen's Trumpet!
So it became the 'sTrumpet.
I will still continue to produce it in that format, if you want hard copy of it in these last weeks also email me (frstephenclark@gmail.com)
Indeed if you want to continue receiving after I leave the parish then that's fine too

Thursday, June 12, 2014

We are fortunate in our parish to lead a relatively harmonious and trouble free life.
This is part of the privilege and the luxury of living with religious freedom
in Western democracy
Not everyone in the world does.
We do not live without ridicule,
nor should we;
most of the ridicule heaped on us
is because we are ridiculous.
And behave in foolish and petty ways.
Sometimes our behaviour has been shameful
unloving, unkind
and certainly unChristlike

Sometimes people have said to me: "It must be difficult having two churches."I have not found it to be so.
I usually quickly say: We are one parish with two buildings
This is a wise decision this parish made many years ago
when Diocesan rules and regulations were changed.

This decision to be ONE is very Trinitarian.
Though made up of a number of different entities, people, parts
even buildings
There is at our heart a UNITY.
The UNITY does not destroy the individuality.

We are about to enter a time of change.
For a while this will probably seem imperceptible.
But it would be good if on this Trinity Sunday
we are very clear that the UNITY that we are blessed with
is something that is Jesus's own prayer for us.May they be One Father even as you and I are One.

When we are tempted to say "I am an All Hallows person"
or "I am a St John's person".....that may be true at a shallow level
W

But it is very secondary to what we need to also remember...
...I am actually called to be a Godly person, a Jesus person, a Spirit-filled person.

Do not allow the temptations: to impose our own will, to manipulate,
to become wishy washy, to play games.
Sometimes just imperceptible. Sometimes unknowing.
This (what we call interregnum)
is actually not a time to slacken off
or lessen support for the UNITY of the parish.
But rather to pray earnestly:
For the parish
For each other
and for a new priest

That we may all be ONE
Children of the same Father, a Jesus person, open to the new and gracious leading of the Spirit

This is always a prayer for every day of the life of a Christian community
...but particularly at this slightly trickier part of the journey.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

In the embarrassment of riches that this season affordswe move from the great story of Easter, Ascensionand then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecostto today being invited to put all this into contextwith a focus on the community of GodThe community that we call the Trinity.In an idea that I quite like, Archbishop William Templesays that we need the doctrine of the Holy Trinityit helps us not fall into the trap of having an idea of Godthat is too small.

Temple also says, reminding us that The Trinity is about the worship of God,

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.

And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.

from his Readings in St John's Gospel

While we often think that this doctrine is hard to understandAt the heart of it is the idea that God is lovethat love is aboutcommunityand that God is constantly seeking to embrace usand bring us into this community of love

Temple, a most striking figure of the 20th Century search,

reminds us that love in this community will be about justice

for all humanity

and of creating a society which cares for the most vulnerableSo the language that is used to talk about Godis relationalWe talk (after St Augustine) of a Father, a Sonand of a Spirit which flows out from themtheir relationship being so profoundthat the Spirit effectively issues as a different personaempowering us and always seeking to draw us into the circle of life(the circle, or three interlocking circles is often used to symbolise the Trinity)This idea is not without difficultybut it does serve to give us the sensethat God is relationalthat God is communitythat God is love.

It is the same God who is the Father of Jesuswho is declared himself to be our Father(We would also want to invite discussion todayabout God our Mother)It is the same God who is the Son of the Father/Motherwho says to us you too are the sons and daughters of my Fatheryou are my sisters and brothersIt is the same God who is the Holy Spiritwho says my love for you is so realthat I am always drawing you into community with me.

God is calling us to be part of the same communityThat Father-Son-and Spirit shareIt is not a closed shopOur fulness of lifecomes from being in communion with God.God is sharing life with usGod is sharinglove with us.Does this make a difference?The Trinity initiates us into the ideathat God is actually in relationship with usthat God loves usand that we are invited into community with God.When Jesus speaks to his disciples (as we read today)and suggests that they should spread the Good Newshe is saying that all people can be drawn into the life of Godand this will liberate and enliven them

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Theinvitationis to be drawn into the life of Godtheresponsibilityis to live in the Spirit of God's lifeand the promise is that God will be with us for ever

We might go on to say that the expectation is that this will change our lifeWe are after all being drawn into the circle of God's lifeSo transforming is this experiencethat we will want to share it with others.

This is NOT some difficult doctrinethis is the centre of our faith experience

If you want your life changed, enriched, transformedthen it is done by allowing yourself to become a daughter, a sona sister and a brotherIn relationship with God.Our Christian understanding is that the Trinity is alwaysseeking to draw us into closer and more personal relationship.This is perhaps rather different from Judaism and Islam.This week

Pray each day to be aware that God wants me to be drawn into the community of love and service which is the Holy Trinity

Dedicate yourself each day to seek fervently to be more & to be closer to God

Is there one person who you can tell this week that God desires them to be close to their life also? Why not tell them or discuss this with them?

O Holy TrinityFather, Son and Holy SpiritYour love for me overflowsand draws me inI seek to be in the circle of lovemay I share this love with others too.O Gracious Holy Trinity

At Easter a principal symbol in many Churchesis the Paschal or Easter candlewhich is marked in various ways at the Great Vigil.With Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) , the number of the year, the sign of the cross,and often including five nails.It burns for the great 50 days which conclude today with the feast of Pentecost when we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first disciplesWhat to do with with this very rich symbolic candle at the end of this season?Well of course the logical thing to do is extinguish it!though we do not want to give the impression that everything is now over and done with,because of course it isn't!In a way it has only just begun.So in our churches today as the large candle is extinguishedindividual worshipers are invited to light a personal candle of their own.The simple idea is that the Easter Commissionis deliberately transmittedto each individual as part of their baptismal responsibility.This is, indeed, the movement that we trace in the readings today.God pours out the Holy Spirit to renew the worldand to encourage and bless the community of faithin order that they may bring the hope of Christ to the world.The way this Spirit works is that it is given to individualswhether it be (as in Numbers) the elders of the Churchor as in Acts and I Corinthians on the individual baptised;we are invited to appreciate that the gift of the Spiritapart from being a numinous spiritual blessingto the world or community of faith in generalis also, in practice, worked out in the individual giftedness of each of the baptised.So, St Paul's idea is thatthe Holy Spirit gives to each of the baptised an outpouring of the Spiritwhich manifests itself in particular giftsHe cites a number of gifts..teaching, hospitality, prophecy, prayer, deep faithand so on (some number these as many as 75 specific gifts)His implication is that every baptised Christianis gifted in some wayand that we are to use those giftsfor the furtherance of the kingdom of God.That is, the presence of the risen Christis committed to you and meand we are gifted by the Holy Spiritto carry on Christ's work.We are not expected to pass an examor do a whole pile of learningin order to do this workwe are rather required to use the gift that has been given.We each need to think abouthow the Spirit has lit our personal candle.Far from the work being over when Easter is finishedand we extinguish the candleit is not so much over as transferredto each of us individually.

So we can ask,what is my particular gift?and how am I to use it to further the kingdom of God?We are given gifts, our candle is lit,not to hide (Jesus uses this sort of image)but for a purpose.We do not have to get a qualification ourselvesit is more that we need to take the gift out of the box and use it.

So there are two questions for each of usthe second more important than the first,First, what is my giftand the second important question how might I use it?The kingdom is weakened in so faras we hide our lightor ignore it.Our gift, be it prayer, teaching, almsgiving, hospitalityprophecy or what ever is to be used.Paul is clear that not everyone has the same giftwe are not all teachers or prophets,but we are all gifted as individuals and as communitywith all the gifts necessary to do what God wants us to doand to be what God wants us to be.

This week

Give thanks to God for the Easter mystery, and the promise that Christ has given to be with us always

Ask the Spirit to show you how you ahve been gifted by God, and what you are to do with that gift?

Pray for imagination, opportunity and courage to use the giftedness that God has given me.

We pray, this today and every day:

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on meSpirit of the living God fall afresh on us

About Me

I live in Adelaide South Australia.
I have three adult daughters.
And a son-in-law who is better than the husband I would have chosen for one of my three most important ones.
Did I say "three most important ones"?
Because now they have been supplanted by the most wonderful one who popped into our world in January 2015
I am a priest in the Anglican Church.
The parish priest, indeed, of Adelaide's leading Anglo-Catholic parish, St Mary Magdalene's, Adelaide.
I lean (a lot) to the left...and all that seems OK to me
I long for a republic, for marriage equality; and for a tolerant society.